Sunday, May 12, 2019

REVIEW 678: JUNE

There is no genre
better suited to the widely celebrated New Age slice-of-life Malayalam cinema
than the coming-of-age film. Writer-director Ahammed Khabeer facilitates a
well-suited match between the two in June,
the story of a young woman from Kottayam called June Sara Joy.

Khabeer’s film,
which he has co-written with Libin Varghese and Jeevan Baby Mathew, travels
with the girl from her teens to her 20s, from her first day in Class 11 to
approximately a decade later, accompanying her through adolescent crushes and adult
romance, her relationships with parents and friends, encounters with misogyny
and patriarchy, and her pursuit of her dreams.

June makes for an
interesting choice of heroine, because there is absolutely nothing remarkable
about her or uncommon about her experiences. In fact, this is how she
introduces herself to her class on Day 1, as someone with no special talents
unlike the rest of them.

In the time we
spend with her as viewers, nothing happens that would seem dramatic to the
average observer, no tragedy, no great achievement. Yet in her own eyes, of
course, her life is packed with drama as we see her shed buckets of tears
through a major confrontation with her normal-as-hell parents and other
situations.

This perhaps is the
point being made by the writers: that what seems routine to the outside world
can be trying, stressful, joyful, exhilarating and/or depressing by turns to
the person going through what we are just watching. That “normal” and “ordinary”
are often a matter of interpretation.

Khabeer’s
storytelling style is easygoing, naturalistic and a good fit here. While June could have done with a paring down
of the number of songs fitted into the narrative, Lijo Paul’s editing works well for it. We are occasionally taken back and forth in time through the many passages in the
protagonist’s life, with Paul making smooth
jumps that usually illustrate how she got to a particular point or how she has
changed.

Rajisha Vijayan, who debuted to critical acclaim
in 2016 with Anuraga Karikkin Vellam,
has the task of portraying this blossoming youth.
She is most convincing in June’s teenage years when
she captures the child-woman’s sprightly demeanour, affectionate nature,
immaturity and innate decency in equal measure without over-cutesifying her,
and again in the transitional phase during which she confronts gender prejudice
with undiluted spirit. Not so convincing is the writing and acting of the
oldest June we get to see in the film when she is well into her 20s. This is a
young woman who was shown to have matured in preceding scenes, yet her body
language remains unchanged and her artificially energetic, child-like behaviour
comes across as contrived during her first meeting with a new beau, when she
seems like a bit of a regurgitation of the old Manic Pixie Dream Girl cliché.

Her physique and
styling too seem unaltered. I have read that Vijayan lost considerable weight
to play the teenaged June. The problem is that she looks exactly like the
teenaged June right up to the last scene. I do not understand why anyone
thought this actor needs help to look younger. The fact is her appearance is so
youthful, that she could have done with better makeup and an intelligent
stylist to look older for the 20-something June.

This is also a
concern with at least two of the actors playing her classmates who look too
baby-faced to be women well on their way to 30 in the end. The boys are much
more believable as men and, in truth, some of them are less believable as
schoolkids.

By this point in
the film though, much water has passed under the bridge, and Ms Vijayan under
Mr Khabeer’s guidance has drawn us so inexorably into June’s existence, that I,
for one, as a viewer, found myself in an indulgent mood.

The Dad quietly
pouring her her first drink while the mother is not watching, her first kiss,
her first open battle with patriarchy are all handled perfectly naturally
without creating a big shindig around them as other contemporary commercial
filmmakers do. However, the one folly – and a big folly it is – is the
inconsistency in the definition of June’s dream. (Some readers may consider the rest of this paragraph a spoiler) In
one crucial, well-executed portion, she is shown avidly fighting for a woman’s
right to be more than just a stay-at-home mother whose decisions are made by a
dictatorial husband. Not long after, an important character asks her what
precisely her own dreams are for herself. She has no answer then, and by the finale, both she and the
writers seem to have either lost interest in finding one or have completely
forgotten about it. (Spoiler alert ends)

This forgetfulness
implies a lack of commitment. Along with the schmaltzy, over-stretched climax
that extends way beyond the nostalgia it intends to convey, it subtracts from
the overall impact of June.

Still, there is
plenty to like in this teens-to-20s saga, not the least reasonsbeing
its gentle tone, Rajisha Vijayan’s likeable screen presence, and her
comfortable chemistry with her co-stars, especially the lovely Joju George
playing her liberal-yet-conservative Dad and Sarjano Khalid who is cast as her
first boyfriend.

I would gladly
re-watch June just for the joy of
revisiting the warmth in the leading lady’s scenes with her indulgent father.

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About Me

Anna MM Vetticad is an award-winning journalist, journalism teacher and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic, an overview of the Hindi film industry presented through an account of a year in which she watched every single Bollywood film released in India’s National Capital Region. A journalist since 1994, she has worked with India Today, The Indian Express and Headlines Today. At HT she hosted her own interview show Star Trek which drew all India’s eminent entertainment personalities. While Anna has spent most of her career as a behind-the-scenes editorial person, she has also reported on most major Indian entertainment and lifestyle events and several international ones including Cannes and the Oscars, in addition to being the film critic for Headlines Today. She is currently reporting and writing for multiple publications on cinema and social issues with a focus on gender concerns. The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic is available on amazon.com, ebay.in, flipkart.com, ombooksinternational.com, ombooks.com, infibeam.com, homeshop18.com and dialabook.in among other websites, and in stores across India. Twitter: @annavetticad